General information | |
---|---|
Location | Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf Wales |
Coordinates | 51°35′58″N3°20′31″W / 51.5994°N 3.3419°W |
Grid reference | ST071898 |
Managed by | Transport for Wales |
Platforms | 3 |
Other information | |
Station code | PPD |
Classification | DfT category C2 |
History | |
Original company | Taff Vale Railway |
Pre-grouping | Taff Vale Railway |
Post-grouping | Great Western Railway |
Key dates | |
9 October 1840 | Opened as Newbridge Junction |
March 1866 | Renamed Pontypridd |
1924 | Renamed Pontypridd Central |
10 July 1930 | Renamed Pontypridd |
Passengers | |
2018/19 | 0.884 million |
Interchange | 53,586 |
2019/20 | 0.815 million |
Interchange | 48,290 |
2020/21 | 0.153 million |
Interchange | 6,808 |
2021/22 | 0.409 million |
Interchange | 24,448 |
2022/23 | 0.536 million |
Interchange | 35,985 |
Listed Building –Grade II | |
Feature | Pontypridd Railway Station Main Platform including buildings and canopy |
Designated | 17 July 1990 |
Reference no. | 13525 [1] |
Location | |
Notes | |
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road |
Pontypridd railway station serves the town of Pontypridd in Rhondda Cynon Taf,Wales. It is located at the junction of the Merthyr line and the Rhondda line and has for many years been the only station serving the town.
Until the 1930s,Pontypridd had two other stations. One,just behind the present station,was known as Pontypridd Graig. It closed in 1930. The other,Pontypridd Tram Road,serving the former Pontypridd to Newport line,closed in 1922. It was located near where this line crossed the 'Broadway' in Treforest.
The station was built by the Taff Vale Railway (TVR) and opened on 9 October 1840. It was known as Newbridge Junction until March 1866 when it was renamed Pontypridd. [2]
It was progressively remodelled during the 19th century,but its present appearance derives largely from reconstruction carried out between 1907 and 1914. Reflecting both the narrow steep sided topography of the valley,and the need to accommodate many converging passenger routes and passing coal trains,it is effectively designed as two back-to-back termini. This gave it the then longest island platform in the world,around which were arranged seven platforms.
The west side of the island platform has two,stepped platform faces (originally platforms 1 &2) each originally capable of accommodating a full-length train. The east side of the island platform has three stepped platform faces (originally platforms 5,6 &7) arranged as a north bay platform,a through platform and a south bay platform. The north end of the island platform accommodated two bay platforms (originally platforms 3 &4),now filled in. The north end bay platforms were used for services to Aberdare,Nelson and Ynysybwl,and the south bay platform (originally platform 7) for services to Llantrisant and Cowbridge.
The modernisation of 2014/2015 brought former through platform 6 back into use as a bay platform,now numbered platform 1,for southbound services to Cardiff. (Due to loss of railway land to road widening,the southern end of the concourse of new bay platform 1 (old platform 6) has been cut back and re-profiled,and its track has been slewed partly into the adjacent trackbed of former bay platform 7.)
Architecturally,the 1912 station still includes all the original red brick and terracotta buildings on the island platform,some of which remain in public use,e.g. as ticket office and waiting room. The elaborate 1912 main station façade in the same art nouveau style was destroyed during modernisation in the mid 1970s and replaced by a featureless red brick wall. The station subsequently achieved Listed Building status in 1990 for architectural interest as a fine Edwardian railway station retaining original character. The 1970s façade was itself replaced by a mainly blue brick wall in the 1990s,temporarily exposing the severely damaged Edwardian façade.
The Pontypridd,Caerphilly and Newport Railway (PC&NR) was opened for goods on 25 July 1884,providing a route to Newport Docks for Rhondda coal;the trains were worked by TVR locomotives. Passenger services,which used the TVR's station at Pontypridd,began on 28 December 1887,and were operated by the Alexandra (Newport and South Wales) Docks and Railway (ADR),which absorbed the PC&NR in 1897. [3] Between April 1904 and July 1922, [2] passenger services from Caerphilly terminating at Pontypridd used the ADR's own station at Pontypridd Tram Road.
Also known as the Hopkinstown rail disaster,this accident occurred on 23 January 1911 when a passenger train collided with a coal train at Hopkinstown,outside Pontypridd,resulting in the loss of eleven [4] lives.
The TVR and ADR amalgamated with the Great Western Railway on 1 January 1922,as did the Barry Railway,which also had a station in Pontypridd. To avoid confusion,the two stations were both renamed in 1924,the former TVR station becoming Pontypridd Central,with the ex-Barry Railway station becoming Pontypridd Graig . [5]
On 10 July 1930,Pontypridd Graig was closed,with its services being diverted to Pontypridd Central,which reverted to its former name of Pontypridd. [5]
The former PC&NR route was closed to passengers from 17 September 1956. [6] and completely in 1965,whilst the service to Llantrisant ended on 31 March 1952 and the former Barry Railway services to Cadoxton and to Cardiff Central via St Fagans on 10 September 1962.
With the Beeching Plan reducing passenger traffic (the line to Aberdare closing in March 1964),and falling coal production,track simplification was carried out by British Rail in 1974,resulting in the removal of all track from the eastern side of the island platform. Effectively,from 1974 onwards,the station functioned as a single-platform station (using old platform 1). However,with the subsequent re-opening of Aberdare and the growth of passenger traffic,British Rail added a new northbound platform in 1990–1991. This platform was built alongside the former freight lines west of the main island platform,and did not form part of the original station. [7]
Two platforms were in use,only one of which (old platform 1) was located in the historic part of the large island platform station dating from 1912. Platform 1 was the southern one of two former platform faces on the west side of the long island platform. Accessible via a subway,it was used,and is still used,by Cardiff-bound services. The east side of the island platform once had three platform faces. This side of the station had lain out of use since the lifting of track in 1974. A booking office,a waiting room and toilets are located in original Edwardian brick and terracotta buildings on the main island platform,near Platform 1.
Platform 2 was a new platform for valleys-bound services built in 1990-1 alongside the former freight lines west of the main island platform. It was not part of the 1912 station. The platform shelter was built in brickwork laid in Flemish Bond,providing at least an attenuated echo of the station buildings on the main island platform. A new footbridge linked platforms 1 and 2.
On 27 August 2007,the station (along with all stations further up the valleys) was closed to enable work to be carried out to enable longer trains to be accommodated,starting with the new northbound platform. This closure continued until completion on 9 September.
During the summer of 2011 maintenance work was carried out at the station including work on the lift and restoration work on the canopy of the island platform. Ticket barriers were also installed.
As part of a £200m regeneration scheme to boost train capacity in Cardiff and the surrounding areas,Pontypridd received a third platform in December 2014. [8]
Work began in 2014 to build this platform in the station,to accommodate more trains and to increase the number of services to Cardiff. The new platform is a bay platform that will bring part of the east side of the historic 1912 station back into use. The new bay platform has been formed from the former middle platform face on the east side of the station (former platform 6),necessarily re-profiled towards its southern end due to loss of land to road widening.
Since December 2014,platforms have been re-numbered as follows:
Platform 1 (pre-1974 platform 6):Bay platform for southbound services to Cardiff. Platform 2 (platform 1 pre-1974 and 1974–2014):Through southbound services to Cardiff. Platform 3 (freight line platform built in 1990-1 as platform 2):Through northbound services.
In October 2019,the station's underpass was repainted with help from Lionel Stanhope. The murals reflect vintage railway signs with 'Pontypridd' on one side and 'Graig' on the other. The project also brought improved lighting to the area. [9]
During Monday-Saturday daytimes,there are usually six trains an hour from Cardiff Central,made up of a half-hourly service frequency on each of the three branches,i.e. to Treherbert,Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare. This drops to hourly on each route in the evening. [10]
There are six trains an hour southbound to Cardiff Central via Cardiff Queen Street;two trains each hour terminate there,whilst the others continue to Barry Island (three per hour) or Bridgend via Barry (hourly). Some peak period &evening trains also serve Penarth,but the normal off-peak service pattern requires a change of train at Central or Grangetown for travellers heading there. In the evening there are three Cardiff-bound trains per hour.
A reduced service operates on Sundays,with two-hourly frequencies on all three northbound routes and three trains every two hours southbound to Cardiff and beyond.
The service from this station towards Porth and Treherbert is currently (summer 2023) suspended,due to major route upgrade work being carried out at multiple locations as part of the Valley Lines electrification scheme. A replacement bus service is in operation calling at all local stations until February 2024 [11] These arrive &depart from the station front. Some evening trains on the Aberdare and Merthyr branches are also replaced by buses during this period as part of the same work.
Preceding station | National Rail | Following station | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Treforest | Transport for Wales Merthyr Line - Aberdare branch | Abercynon | ||
Transport for Wales Merthyr Line - Merthyr Tydfil branch | ||||
Treforest | Transport for Wales Rhondda Line | Trehafod | ||
Disused railways | ||||
Pontypridd Tram Road Line and station closed | Alexandra Docks and Railway Pontypridd,Caerphilly and Newport Railway | Trehafod Line and station open |
The station appeared in the television series Stella as Pontyberry. Other local stations including Barry Island railway station also appeared as Pontyberry in the series.
In 2020,the Rail Delivery Group nominated Pontypridd as one of the Welsh stations as a contender for the World Cup of Stations. However,it did not pass the group stages. [12]
The Taff Vale Railway (TVR) was a standard gauge railway in South Wales,built by the Taff Vale Railway Company to serve the iron and coal industries around Merthyr Tydfil and to connect them with docks in Cardiff. It was opened in stages in 1840 and 1841.
Radyr railway station is a railway station serving the Radyr area of Cardiff,South Wales. It is at the foot of the hill at the eastern edge of the village,alongside the River Taff and adjacent to the Taff Trail. The station is on the Merthyr Line,and is also the northern terminus of the City Line.
Pontypridd Graig railway station was a railway station located in the South Wales valleys town of Pontypridd,on the Barry Railway. Although the line was opened for mineral traffic on 18 July 1889 to take coal from Rhondda to the Docks,the passenger service did not start until 16 March 1896 after much lobbying from local residents along the line. On that date,Barry services commenced between the Taff Vale station at Porth and Barry where the train terminated in the bay platform. On 7 June 1897,a new passenger service began between Pontypridd and Cardiff Clarence Road via St Fagans and Cardiff Riverside. Train journeys commenced at Pontypridd because the Taff Vale was not willing to allow direct competition with its own services from Porth to Cardiff Queen Street. The station was closed to passengers on 5 May 1930 by the GWR who diverted trains via Treforest Junction to its main station at Pontypridd Central.
Treforest railway station is a railway station serving the village of Treforest,Rhondda Cynon Taf,Wales. It is located on the Merthyr Line and the Rhondda Line 18 km north west of Cardiff Central. Passenger services are provided by Transport for Wales.
Taffs Well railway station is a railway station serving the village of Taff's Well,Rhondda Cynon Taf,Wales,as well as neighbouring Gwaelod-y-Garth,Cardiff. It is located on the Merthyr Line and the Rhondda Line. Passenger services are provided by Transport for Wales.
Penrhiwceiber railway station serves the village of Penrhiwceiber,Rhondda Cynon Taf,Wales. It is located on the Aberdare branch of the Merthyr Line between the town of Mountain Ash and the village of Abercynon. Passenger services are provided by Transport for Wales.
Cwmbach railway station is a railway station serving the village of Cwmbach in Rhondda Cynon Taf,Wales. It is located on the Merthyr line branch of the Merthyr Line. Passenger services are provided by Transport for Wales.
Aberdare railway station is a railway station serving the town of Aberdare in Rhondda Cynon Taf,Wales. It is the terminus of the Aberdare branch of the Merthyr Line,22½ miles (36 km) directly north of Cardiff Central. Passenger services are provided by Transport for Wales.
Cadoxton railway station is a railway station serving Cadoxton and Palmerstown near Barry,Vale of Glamorgan,South Wales. It is located on the Barry Branch 6½ miles (10 km) south of Cardiff Central. The line continues to the terminus of the Barry Branch at Barry Island but from Barry Junction the line also continues as the Vale of Glamorgan branch to Bridgend via Rhoose for Cardiff International Airport bus link and then Llantwit Major.
Trehafod railway station is a railway station serving the township of Trehafod in Rhondda Cynon Taf,Wales. It is located on the Rhondda Line.
Porth railway station is a railway station serving the town of Porth in Rhondda Cynon Taf,Wales. It is located on the Rhondda Line.
Dinas Rhondda railway station is a railway station serving the Dinas,Penygraig and Trealaw districts of Tonypandy,Wales. It is located on the Rhondda Line.
Tonypandy railway station is a railway station serving the town of Tonypandy in south Wales. It is located on the Rhondda Line. The station cannot be directly accessed from Tonypandy,a scenic bridge over the river Rhondda must be used as the station adjoins a mountain.
Llwynypia railway station is a railway station serving the town of Llwynypia in Wales. It is located on the Rhondda Line.
Ystrad Rhondda railway station is a railway station serving Ystrad in Rhondda Cynon Taf,Wales. It is located on the Rhondda Line. Alphabetically,it is the last station in the UK with the first being Abbey Wood station in southeast London.
Ton Pentre railway station is a railway station serving the village of Ton Pentre in Rhondda Cynon Taf,Wales. It is located on the Rhondda Line.
Treorchy railway station is a railway station serving the town of Treorchy and village of Cwmparc in Rhondda Cynon Taf,Wales. It is located on the Rhondda Line.
Treherbert railway station serves the village of Treherbert in Rhondda Cynon Taf,Wales. It is the northern terminus of the Rhondda Line,23 miles (37 km) north west of Cardiff Central.
Ystrad Mynach railway station is a railway station serving the town of Ystrad Mynach,south Wales. It is a stop on the Rhymney Line of the Valley Lines network.
Abercynon railway station is the railway station serving the village of Abercynon in the Cynon Valley,Wales. It is located on the Merthyr Line,15.5 miles (25 km) north of Cardiff Central. Passenger services are provided by Transport for Wales.